Edwards takes stand on China, Darfur during Durham stop

DURHAM — Presidential candidate John Edwards on Tuesday told hundreds of Oyster River High School students that they could ask him anything they wanted.

But he didn't say he would answer everything.

Not even a pair of Class of '08-themed sunglasses could do the trick. A student presented the glasses, then asked the former senator and 2004 vice presidential candidate who among his rivals he would support if he wasn't in the race.

"Good question," more than one person in the auditorium of Oyster River High School proclaimed.

"I hate to talk like a politician, but I have not spent a nanosecond thinking about that, because when you're running for president you're so committed to what you want to do as president," he said with a smile during a campaign stop at the school to court young, first-time voters. "It would require some thought, more thought than I've given it."

He added, "I think I'm gonna, uh, use my privilege of keeping that to myself."

Edwards wasn't at a loss for words thereafter. He took a hard line against China for allowing genocide in Sudan's Darfur region and not doing enough to improve the environment.

"China has enormous economic leverage over (Sudanese President Omar al-) Bashir and the Sudanese government, and we need to pressure the Chinese diplomatically and economically ... because they're propping up this genocide right now," he said. "If they would change their behavior it would, I think, create a powerful dynamic."

Edwards later addressed China's vigorous build-up of coal-fired power plants.

"They don't scrub any of them, so they're doing extraordinary damage to the environment," he said. "But they're not paying any attention to America because we're just as bad or worse than they are in the way we pollute."

One student took Edwards to task for his opposition to new nuclear power plants, saying 95 percent of nuclear waste can be recycled and provide more alternative energy than other sources.

Edwards countered by saying even if nuclear power plants were doubled across the world, it only would deal with about one-seventh of the greenhouse gas emissions. He said plant construction takes too long, doesn't address immediate problems, poses attractive targets for terrorists and he isn't convinced there's a long-term solution to handling the waste.

Dressed like a student, in blue jeans and a blue sweatshirt, Edwards laid out his plan to improve education, saying the topic was of "personal interest" to him because without quality public school teachers he wouldn't have been able to get to college and begin a successful law career.
Edwards long has been touting his education policy: universal preschool, a tuition-free national teaching university to train educators to teach in the "toughest places," inventive pay for teachers to help in needy communities and improving the drop out rate by setting up "second chance schools."
"We still in many ways have two public school systems, divided by economic status of how much money their community has from families whose children go to that school," he said. "And that's not right — I don't think anyone in American believes that a quality of a child's education should be controlled by how affluent the area is that they live in or the family that they were born in to, certainly not the color of their skin."
Edwards received sustained applause when he said he wants to "significantly" change No Child left Behind so instead of standardized testing, students are measured from the beginning to the end of the year, with teachers playing a role in the measuring progress.
His "College For Everyone" plan, fashioned after a privately funded model in his home state of North Carolina, would allow students who work 10 hours per week to attend state colleges or universities for free the first year, with the cost of other years being lowered after ending the costly intermediary role that Edwards says "big banks" play in the government loan process.
Meeting with reporters later, Edwards said he appreciated students' questions, which also covered the war in Iraq, the underground diamond trade and North American commerce. He said some students, depending on their age, were more knowledgeable than others.
"That young guy on the stage who asked about nuclear power, he knew what he was talking about," he said.
Students were mixed in their opinions on Edwards. Spencer Eastman, who will be old enough to vote in 2008, said he supports Comedy Central's Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart for president and vice president because "they are the only two who even seem reasonable at this point."
School officials said Edwards' visit was important because candidates tend to visit schools in larger communities, like Concord and Merrimack.
The school has invited all of the presidential candidates, Democrats and Republicans, to speak.

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